Phillip Davis

Phillip Davis has been writing short stories, novels, poems, and plays for most of his life, although Peppermint Lightning is his first published book, and decidedly so, for reasons that are quite personal to the author. While in high school, he won awards for two plays that he authored, and later he completed the NaNoWriMo challenge three times, the literary equivalent to multiple Boston Marathons. Phillip was born in Waterloo, New York, but has made dwellings in Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, and Tennessee, ultimately returning “home” to East Liverpool, Ohio. Along the way he has attended Merrimack College, The University of Massachusetts, and he has earned a degree from Western Governors University. Over several decades Phillip has earned his keep warehousing vitamins, renting everything from heavy machinery to automobiles, setting up tents, acting in theater, laying tile, scheduling service jobs, mixing paint, slinging java, washing dishes, and selling books, eventually answering his calling as a teacher, where he helps his students find lightning, peppermint and otherwise, in the spots it is least likely to strike, and magic in the corners that require a special eye to uncover. Although he has always written, we may now add “author” to that considerable list of vocations.

Phillip has two brothers, two parents, and two step-parents, all of whom he cares for deeply. He lives with the love of his life, Brandy, along with four cats and two dogs, in a tidy brick house, where, you might imagine, Christmas is kept. Inquiries may be sent to peppermintlightning@gmail.com

Peppermint Lightning

Fiction/Holiday

There is a force that powers the Christmas spirit, a magic that makes lights shine brighter, cookies taste sweeter, and keeps reindeer in the air. It is a power as old as Christmas itself, an unseen electric current of kindness, cheer, and good will. That force is called peppermint lightning. It is fading and in need of a champion.

Sidney, a nine year old school girl from Pleasant, Ohio, full of peppermint lightning herself, is called upon to help restore that magic to its former glory. She is recruited by a hopeful elf, an English gingerbread man, a matronly reindeer, and a proud snowman to bring the spirit of Christmas, the peppermint lightning, back to a community that has lost theirs. If she fails in her task, the spark of the holiday will fade and with it all the magic of Christmas. Will her determination, her random acts of Christmas kindness, and a little holiday mischief be enough to put the spark back in the season?